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Woolworths axed 450 head office and support staff jobs yesterday as the retail chain's administrators sifted through the first bids for its 815 stores.
News of the job losses, from a workforce of more than 25,000, came as Woolworths stores were filled with shoppers trying to find a bargain in a desperate half-price sale on items from toys to Christmas decorations. Yesterday saw the chain's best sales in its 99-year history, with £27m of goods being sold.
The job losses at Woolworths headquarters in London and support centre in Castleton, Rochdale, are the latest in a week of woe for British workers.
Yesterday the Doncaster-based rail freight company EWS blamed the recession for its decision to cut 530 jobs.
"EWS has told us that its work has fallen off the cliff in recent weeks. Virtually all steel and car transporting has come to a near standstill," said Gerry Doherty, general secretary of the transport union TSSA, as he called for an urgent meeting with the transport secretary, Geoff Hoon.
In Swansea, a car components factory owned by Canada's Linamar said it was shedding 208 jobs, more than half the staff, as it transfers work to Mexico.
None of the job losses at Woolworths are in its stores, but those jobs are expected to go when the retail estate is broken up. Since it collapsed over a week ago, the administrators Deloitte have received hundreds of expressions of interest in the whole chain, individual stores and its distribution arm, Entertainment UK.
Yesterday bidders were told whether their offers for parts of the store portfolio had been successful or if they would have to "recast" their bids. The supermarket chain Sainsbury's is understood to have put in an offer for as many as 100 stores, while Morrisons wants just a handful of selected sites. Discount stores such as Poundstretcher and Poundland are also interested in parts of the estate.
There were also rumours yesterday that the US computer games retailer GameStop wanted to buy about half the stores. The company denied this.
The holding company is also likely to go into administration within days. While Woolworths stores and Entertainment UK were placed in administration, Woolworths Group was kept out while it negotiated the sale of its 40% stake in the 2entertain DVD joint venture with the BBC.
The broadcaster, however, has been trying to push down the £100m asking price, not least because one of 2entertain's main customers was Entertainment UK. Supplies to major retailers such as Zavvi have been disrupted and it will have missed out on a major chunk of Christmas trade.
Yesterday, Neville Kahn, administrator and reorganisation services partner at Deloitte, said: "There have been no redundancies in the high-street stores and distribution centres. Our expectation remains that stores will remain open beyond Christmas and that all staff in the stores will be paid in full.
"The stores and distribution centres will continue to trade as normal, but with a simplified core structure supporting them going forward. The administrators, supported by management, are still actively seeking a purchaser for the business as a going concern, with discussions being held with a number of interested parties. We are working hard to ensure that any sale of the business, in whole or in part, will preserve jobs."
Monday
Aston Martin, Gaydon, Warwicks 600
Credit Suisse, UK 650
HSBC, London 500
BBC Resources, UK 210
Halfords, Redditch and UK 200
Flight Refuelling, Wimborne 95
Unilever, Port Sunlight 70
European Aviation, Bournemouth 70
Tuesday
Bowie Castlebank, UK 817
GlaxoSmithKline, Co Durham 200
Wednesday
3i, London 100
Thursday
Revenue and Customs, UK 3,400
Commerzbank, London 1,200
Nomura, London 1,000
Michael Page, UK 350
Experian, UK and Ireland 300
Gala Coral, UK 200
Yesterday
Woolworths, UK 450
EWS, Doncaster 530
Total 10,942
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